Prototype Pictures
Paper Prototype |
Description |
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In the initial prototype, the user was presented with the following dashboard. Tabs on the side provide the user the ability to filter the result set (not implemented in the first paper prototype). The center column provides a list of jobs separated into 3 categories: unassigned, assigned, and recently completed. Jobs have the ability to be clicked ("focused"), or starred. The rightmost column shows the currently selected or focused job. A description of the job, the ability to mark it complete, assign it to a worker, and create updates on the focused job. |
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The user is able to star jobs in the center column by clicking on the star to the left of the job title. The UI is simply updated to reflect the starred job. |
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Users can assign a focused job to a list of workers. The assignement is done in the right column by clicking the dropdown list of users. |
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When a user assigns a job to a particular user, the UI is updated to reflect this by showing the assigned worker on the right side of the assignment widget. |
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notification |
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address |
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address filtered |
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new none selected |
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new selected |
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selected starred |
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tab filter |
Briefing
Application purpose:
MIT House Managers and mechanics have to coordinate to complete house repairs. Currently:
- House Managers get bombarded with emails requesting house repairs.
- House Managers then delegate those requests to mechanics via phone or walkie-talkie.
- House Managers coordinate repair job progress via phone or walkie-talkie.
- All repair job progress is managed in House Managers' heads/makeshift record books.
Our application speeds up this repair process by being a centralized, organized hub for House Managers to identify/prioritize important repair jobs, to delegate said jobs to mechanics, and to then monitor repair job progress.
Background information for user:
For this user test, you are the House Manager (Michael McIntyre) of McCormick Hall. You’ve just arrived to work, and you open up our application to begin working on house repairs.
Scenario Tasks:
- Identify the date, time, and location of the most recently completed repair job.
- View more information about the McCormick light bulb repair job.
- Star the McCormick light bulb repair job.
- Assign the light bulb repair job to Jenks Jenkinson, the house mechanic.
- View any new notifications and read them.
- Look up contact information for Home Depot in order to place an order for light bulbs.
- Make a non-urgent note on the light bulb repair job indicating that supplies have been ordered and will be available Wednesday afternoon.
Key Observations:
User Test #1
- Didn’t realize the entries in the middle panel were job listings at first.
- Unsure about the link between middle panel and right panel.
- To assign a job to a mechanic, attempted to click the “Unassigned” icon on the job listing.
- Was confused why details about the lightbulb job were still open on the screen after the job was assigned to a work
User Test #2
- Scanned the right panel furiously to find out how to mark job as important. Really wanted a way to mark job as important in right side panel.
- need physical link between job listings (one suggestion was an arrowed panel divider between a job listing and details)
User Test #3
UI suggestions
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- What happens when the screen is very small (w/ 13-inch hardware or mobile)? Does text just get scrunched up or are certain things not displayed?
- Wrench logo can be mistaken for ‘Settings’ icon.
Feature suggestions
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- Is there any way of tagging things? Is there any way of setting defaults for/identifying recurrent job problems?
- How am i going to assign more than one worker to a particular job?
- What is going on on the mechanic side of things? How is priority reflected on the mechanic side of things?
- Can I aggregate job listings to increase efficiency of doing one operation over multiple jobs?
- Thrown off by fact that address book information would be in this app.
- Don't know how to add contacts to our address book.
- Any way housing manager can make private updates/notes?
User Test #4
- Maybe put a “mark important” button or star in the right pane as well? (right now it’s only on the central pane with the main list of jobs
- Was confused about the difference between notifications and updates (I think this was more just an issue with the prototype and wouldn’t be an issue on the computer)
- At first a little overwhelmed with all the text
User Test #5
- “assign should be automatic, no? why click “assigned”?”
- information overload → especially for beginning user
- search bar and scrollbar for address book should be more obvious
- how to filter the jobs when I type in search bar
User Test #6
- info overload? any way to only display relevant info?
- right side panel not easily linked to left side panel?
- change tabs on left side to be drop down menu at the top
Prototype Iterations:
Key Issue Addressed |
Iteration #1 |
Iteration #2 |
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1. Users felt bombarded with information when they first looked at the website. |
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2. Users did not understand the connection between the middle and right panels. |
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3. Users had difficulties finding how to mark a task as important. |
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4. Users wanted to use the tabs on the left. |
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